


do you look like me; do you sound like me; do you turn into your effigy?

by kiittenteeth



Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Antagonist POV, Beta Read, short fic... just a little drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:09:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24154087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiittenteeth/pseuds/kiittenteeth
Summary: “That so?” Ashfur said, not sure why he was entertaining the thing. “And what happened to her?”“She died,” said Hollykit matter-of-factly, nodding with the information. “Fell from that big rock and died. Just like her stripe told her she would.” She paused for a moment, as if recalling the story Squirrelflight had told her, before adding on, “But she saved everyone. She knew she was gonna die if she did it but she did it anyways, to save everyone.”Her green eyes focused on Ashfur. “Do you think you’ll die saving everybody? Like her?”
Comments: 8
Kudos: 92





	do you look like me; do you sound like me; do you turn into your effigy?

“That’s an awfully scary marking, don’t you think?”

Ashfur allowed one of his eyes to open, just barely, into a narrowed slit, peering at the source of the question that disturbed his recent lounging; he nearly shuddered at the sight of the tiny black kitten with her wide green eyes that always followed him around like a wordless specter. 

“Excuse me?” 

“That marking,” said Hollykit. “Y’know. This one.”

She brought up one of her front paws and, in an odd slicing motion, swiped her paw across her throat. Ashfur’s pelt prickled.

“I don’t think so. It’s just a stripe.” Ashfur said, after a moment of eyeballing the kitten skeptically. Of all of Squirrelflight’s brood, why did it have to be this one that was speaking to him? She had unnerved him since the first day he saw her, sitting atop the stone before the nursery’s entrance, staring him down with wide green eyes while her brothers wrestled noisily beside her. 

_She creeps me out_ , he had complained to his sister. Ferncloud had snorted in good nature and nudged him, purring softly, _She’s just a kitten. You were one of the first warriors she saw besides her kin, of course she’d be curious._ Ferncloud had never soothed him like his mother had, and her words brought no reassurance. The kitten got under his pelt and made his skin crawl. He didn’t talk to Ferncloud much about it afterwards, or about anything, really. 

“My momma says a cat’s marking tells a story about how they’ll die.”

_What a morbid story_ , Ashfur thought, _she’ll be a horrid mother to you. If I were her mate, I wouldn’t let her tell you such gruesome things._

“That’s bizarre.” Ashfur had grown bored already with the conversation, and, in an attempt to deter the kitten away from pestering him further, he turned away from her to run his tongue over his flank. The wet smacking of grooming had always turned him and his siblings away from adults when they were younger. 

“She told me stories about this cat she knew when she was little,” Hollykit began, blatantly ignoring Ashfur’s attempt to discourage her. “She was silver, very beautiful, and she had big black stripes. She says she had one stripe that was hanging off from the others, like a stal - a stalacatite - stalaticite. Stalacite.” 

“ _Stalactite._ ” Ashfur corrected, annoyed with the kitten’s struggling with the word, “What’s she doing telling you such hard words to say?”

“She wants me to learn!” Hollykit puffed out her black chest with pride, her green eyes glittering with admiration at the mention of her mother, “I want to learn everything there is about the world, including the hard words.”

Ashfur did not respond with words, simply flicked his tail, unimpressed. Hollykit stared at him for a few moments, before saying, “Anyways. My momma knew a cat with a marking that looked like a hanging _stalactite,_ ” Hollykit made sure to put extra emphasis on the word this time, obviously pleased with herself when it fell off her tongue correctly this time. “She told me she knew her when she was younger.”

_Feathertail._ Ashfur could still remember the day in perfect clarity when he and Feathertail, apprentices back then, slaughtered that burly white BloodClan tom with the black markings. He flexed his claws at the memory.

“That so?” Ashfur said, not sure why he was entertaining the thing. “And what happened to her?”

“She died,” said Hollykit matter-of-factly, nodding with the information. “Fell from that big rock and died. Just like her stripe told her she would.” She paused for a moment, as if recalling the story Squirrelflight had told her, before adding on, “But she saved everyone. She knew she was gonna die if she did it but she did it anyways, to save everyone.”

Her green eyes focused on Ashfur. “Do you think you’ll die saving everybody? Like her?”

Ashfur recoiled at the question. “What? I don’t - it’s just a _stripe_.”

Hollykit opened her mouth to protest, “But my momma says - !”

“No one cares what your mother says!” Ashfur interrupted, spitting at the kitten now that his patience with Squirrelflight’s rat had run its course; he got to his paws and stalked away from her, lashing his tail behind him. What kind of question was that for a kitten to ask? Squirrelflight had been filling her head with the morbid and the disturbed. If he were her mate like he believed he should have been, he would have _never_ let her tell that thing such scary stories. It was foul, in his eyes. 

It only took Hollykit a few months to forget about that interaction, and seasons later, when she was a warrior and she turned that dark gray stripe across the middle of Ashfur’s throat to a bloody red, she had no time to concern herself over the irony of how Ashfur’s marking was now hidden by the gash. 


End file.
